Skip to main content

SEND Services Failing Our Children?

Raising Awareness: Are Telford and Wrekin's SEND Services Failing Our Children?


As parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in the Telford and Wrekin Borough Council area, it is crucial to reflect on the adequacy of the services provided to our children. Recent reports involving other councils, such as Stockton-on-Tees, have highlighted alarming failings in the management of Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) - see Special Needs Jungle article: Lies Damned lies and Inadequate Fines

These issues raise significant concerns about whether similar problems could be occurring right here in Telford and Wrekin.


The Stockton-on-Tees Case: A Wake-Up Call

In Stockton-on-Tees, a council was found to have sent misleading letters to nearly 100 families, falsely claiming that annual reviews of EHCPs had been conducted. 

This deception resulted in children missing crucial educational opportunities and support, leading to severe distress for both the children and their families. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) discovered that the council had not only failed to carry out the necessary reviews but had also misled parents about the status of their children's educational provisions. The consequences of these actions were devastating for the affected families, who were left without the support their children needed to thrive in their educational journeys.


Could This Happen in Telford and Wrekin?

Given the high number of SEND parents expressing dissatisfaction in local forums, it is essential to question whether Telford and Wrekin Council is facing similar challenges. 

Are parents and children in our area receiving the support they are entitled to? Are EHCPs being managed effectively, or are families being left in the dark about their children's educational needs?


Your Voice Matters

If you have experienced issues with SEND services in Telford and Wrekin, I invite you to share your experiences. Please feel free to privately message me, Mark Webster, Disabiliy Officer, Telford and Wrekin Green Party, to discuss your concerns and insights.

Together, we can raise awareness and advocate for the necessary changes to ensure our children receive the education and support they genuinely deserve.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Wolf in Reformist Clothing

A Wolf in Reformist Clothing: Dissecting the Structural Ableism of Reform UK's SEND "Vision" As a Green Party Disability Officer with three decades of experience, and as a parent who has spent 15 years battling intransigent local authorities for my neurodivergent son, and others, I watched Richard Tice’s press statement with a familiar, corrosive fury. This is not a blueprint for reform. It is a masterclass in the very structural ableism and neoliberal betrayal that has manufactured the SEND crisis. So come with me, and let’s dissect it with the critical eye that it demands. The Insidious Linguistics of Erasure Tice with his core creed: “Nobody's disabled, people are differently abled.” This phrase is not progressive; it is erasure. It is a feel-good, ablest euphemism designed to sanitise the reality of disability in a society structured against us. Disability is not a matter of “different ability”; it is an interaction between impairment and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Farage's Cruelty-Autism

Farage's Cruelty & Misinformation on Autism: A Call for Compassion and Truth in Autism Awareness Month - by Mark Webster, Disability Officer with The Green Party Telford and Wrekin  As Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month 2025 draws to a close,  the need for understanding, compassion, and factual discussion about autism and the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) system has never been more urgent. Yet, Nigel Farage and Reform UK have chosen this crucial moment to spread harmful and inaccurate narratives about autism diagnosis, compounding stigma and misunderstanding for autistic people and their families across the UK. SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) is a blanket term that refers to conditions or difficulties that make it hard for a person to learn or access education compared to others, such as learning disabilities, physical disabilities, or emotional and behavioral challenges.  Farage’s Harmful Claims In a series of recent statemen...
Post a Comment
Read more

LibDem Conference 2025

Following last week's observations of the Reform UK Ltd conference, I had hoped that there would be nothing to report from the Liberal Democrats conference as far as disability is concerned. How wrong was I? While at the conference their leader, Sir Ed Davey, stocked the fires of the hostile environment towards the sick and disabled, using tired old tropes and unsupported figures! See video For istance, Sir Ed, sounding very right wing himself, regurgitated the "fact" that there is widespread fraud by those claiming PIP (Personal Independence Payments) while talking with a radio broadcaster see video While fraud has seen an increase, from 0.0% to 0.4% which is approximately £1.2 billion, and is born out by the governments own 2025 figures. To put that in context, the welfare bill is £303.3 billion per year. Further comparison shows that tax fraud in the UK figures were £48.8 billion a year, and known tax evasion was £0.7 billion. So it would take a person on a...
Post a Comment
Read more